Comments on: Oppression, detached work, young women and Frierehttp://www.sundaypapers.org.uk/?p=3229
A CO-OPERATIVE LOOK AT LIFE, MISSION, YOUTH WORK AND ALL THATFri, 17 Apr 2015 08:06:30 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3By: Richardhttp://www.sundaypapers.org.uk/?p=3229&cpage=1#comment-104043
Wed, 05 Mar 2014 20:17:11 +0000http://www.sundaypapers.org.uk/?p=3229#comment-104043Thanks Ruth and Louise
]]>By: Ruth McConnellhttp://www.sundaypapers.org.uk/?p=3229&cpage=1#comment-103956
Tue, 04 Mar 2014 21:55:36 +0000http://www.sundaypapers.org.uk/?p=3229#comment-103956This is something I’ve thought about a lot recently, my boyfriend considers himself a feminist and has been brought up to be one, but has found people (particularly at university) tell him that he couldnt be one because he was a man. This seems ridiculous from my point of view but that view can sometimes come from the idea that true feminism holds no place for men and it’s women strong inspite of them. Instead it is better to show men who believe on women’s rights and the fair treatment of women. This is the view that the bible teaches, equality rather than one gender having more rights than the other. The other important part of that is that some feminists presume men should not be better at anything than women where as actually just as each person has individual strenghs and weaknesses, some women will be better at more demonized roles than men and some the other way round. If young people are given the space to be themselves away from preconceptions put on them by society/peers/family.
he white ribbon project encourages men to stand up for women’s rights which is important else the next generation of men may not realise the importance of the issue.
]]>By: Louisehttp://www.sundaypapers.org.uk/?p=3229&cpage=1#comment-103922
Tue, 04 Mar 2014 14:08:51 +0000http://www.sundaypapers.org.uk/?p=3229#comment-103922I think if I was in your shoes I would be asking the same questions. I regularly ask similar but completely different questions about working with young men. However, my first thought is that there is something really valuable in your reaction to their powerlessness that comes BECAUSE you are a man. A woman could do the “we’re in it together thing” to some extend (sisterhood) and you can’t do that, but you can do the “I think what is going on is wrong” thing from the position of male power and I think that has a different kind of value to it. If many men in their lives don’t see their value, their sense of powerlessness or any potential or need for that to change, a male voice that speaks truth to them, that values them, that sees their pain, is very valuable. I guess back to the idea that this is why we need diverse teams, we bring different things, not just through personality and life experience but just through who we are including what gender we are.

You don’t mention the gender of the teacher the young women feel victimised by. Although, the feelings are of victimisation either way, as a woman, I feel the gender of the teacher in question (as well as whether the search is done by a male or a female teacher) is relevant to the exact issues and feelings they may be experiencing. For example if the teacher is female, that further erodes the sense of sisterhood. If it is a man, there is an additional question that they may or may not be asking about what his motives are, especially if they have had bad experiences with men in the past. Those are just the first two that come to mind.